Last week i saw the Next Baby Competition and thought 'Oooh why not lets put Tabitha in she is a cutie, no harm done' and if by chance she did well then £500 of Next vouchers is not to be sniffed at, a years modeling contract can't hurt either.. I popped onto the site and easily entered her by attaching one photo, only then did i read the part about the voting system. I have seen competitions like this before where the company do not judge the winners themselves they select or shortlist as in this case by top amount of votes gained. Of course no one just randomly browses and votes for the prettiest this is hard core pimping of your child to family and friends begging for votes.
My heart sank, i really didn't want to have entered Tabitha into this kind of competition.
As i already had clicked enter and the application wasted no time in posting this fact on my Facebook wall i pimped for some votes a few times, but the whole thing still bothered me.
I was pushed over the edge by a friend suggesting i look at the Facebook wall of the competition...Oh my god.
Women, 'Mothers' calling peoples children 'ugly' 'unworthy of winning' of 'cheating' by getting people to vote and the unfairness of their beautiful child with no big family to vote for them, it was turning into a bitch fest full of vileness and stinking of desperation.
This morning i removed Tabitha from the competition and wished Next well with their ongoing event, they will need it. Haters have formed 'Anti Next Baby Comp' groups on Facebook, I would probably suggest armed security at the photoshoot day.
What is really sad is that if anyone thinks that Next set this competition purely to find the next top baby model they are probably wrong. Next have gained thousands of emails from voters and can now use their data information in future marketing.
I'm not mad at Next, its just good business. I am however a little mad with myself for being sucked in.
I'm not a competitive person except if I am in a race. I just can't understand women behaving in this way. And yes £500 is a nice gift and so the the contract. But really it's no excuse to start behaving badly
ReplyDeleteI had not really thought about this properly before although have seen mums on mums social networking site begging for votes.
ReplyDeleteI think there are serious moral issues here using children for commercialism and clearly attracting poor behaviour from competitive mums.
All our children are beautiful.
Thanks for making me think and shame on Next
I've never done the whole modelling thing when it comes to my son. I was always discouraged from that kind of thing when I was young and I feel the same for J. I dont want him to worry about looks etc when hes older and modelling seriously encourages that. No matter how much someone may beg and plead on their facebook/twitter I dont plan to vote for any baby in that competition. Its turned into a nightmare but mums are sucked in by the prize and will do anything to get there sadly! Even online those elbows are being dug in the ribs!
ReplyDeleteThere really are some vile people out there. Don't feel mad at yourself for entering, because you didn't make the 'others behave in such an awful way.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe those horrible things were being said on the fb wall. Well done for pulling Tabs out :-)
I had not really thought about this properly before although have seen mums on mums social networking site begging for votes.
ReplyDeleteI think there are serious moral issues here using children for commercialism and clearly attracting poor behaviour from competitive mums.
All our children are beautiful.
Thanks for making me think and shame on Next